01:00 AM EST on Saturday, March 25, 2006

BY BRYAN ROURKE
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- Romeo & Juliet goes punk.

Fortunately, it's just a phase. By the end of the modernized Shakespearian play now being presented by the Brown/Trinity Rep Consortium, everyone's pretty much back to their Elizabethan selves.

They're not listening to head-banging music. They're not simulating sex acts. They're just talking, and that's plenty.

Ample interest is found in the play's rich language and dramatic plot: death, death and more death, with some heartbreak in between.

This production at Trinity Rep, two acts in 2 hours and 45 minutes, features a cast of 19, all Consortium graduate students. The performances are good, particularly in the leads, Romeo (played by Jordan Kaplan) and Juliet (played by Jessica Crandall). In inflection, tone and pacing, both well impart their characters' often distressed and distraught emotional states.

Where the production, directed by Alex Torra, gives pause is in its presentation: punk.

The Montagues and Capulets dress in boots, black pants, studded collars and muscle shirts. They spike their hair. They sport tattoos. They carry clubs.

The families aren't friends. Mostly they appear in the first act. In the second, it's primarily Romeo and Juliet. So the punk theme doesn't carry over, which is fine.

The first act, however, has some good punk moments. Punk thugs fight, which is believable. They dance, too, which is kind of cute. The party where Romeo and Juliet meet and fall in love begins with an ensemble choreographed dance, set to sometimes profane punk music. And the party ends with revelers leaving the stage in a long punk conga line.

Where the first act has its problems is in sexual overstatement. Little is suggested. Most is demonstrated.

This is done largely through the character of Mercutio, portrayed as a woman (played by Meagan Prahl). She thrusts her hips. She strokes her sword. She mounts Romeo. She simulates oral sex on Juliet's reserved and proper nurse (played by Beth Hallaren).

Mercutio, and the first act, does too much.

The play's second act settles down with nuanced and solid acting, without caustic music and sexual histrionics.

Kaplan and Crandall are excellent in the leads, and the subtle direction they receive is good. For instance, when Romeo approaches Juliet unnoticed as she pines for him, Kaplan periodically addresses his remarks to audience members, suggesting they're in on his adventure.

And when Romeo finally reveals himself to the pining Juliet, she's embarrassed he has overheard her. So Crandall briefly and futilely hides behind a stage curtain.

Paul Coffey, who plays Friar Lawrence, also does a good job, showing a nice and natural range of intonations.

There's no set to speak of. Mostly it's an empty stage with just a few purposeful props, such as daggers, a vial of poison and a makeshift noose.

Juliet dies differently here. It is by her own hand, sort of. But she doesn't stab herself. She hangs herself, which makes for a much more dramatic ending, seeing her body drop, sway, shudder and go still.

Hit the lights. The play's over. Skip the original script's drama-draining postmortem.

But this production's ending creates a logistical problem. Juliet can't set herself up in the theatrical noose. So out comes the rest of the cast to encircle her, watch her, and help her.

Friar Lawrence does the deed. He sets the noose, altering the play's thematic ending. Juliet doesn't die alone by her own doing, but in the actual or imagined company of those who indirectly drove her to her death.

Romeo & Juliet continues at Trinity Rep, 201 Washington St., Providence, today at 2 and 8 p.m. and tomorrow at 2 p.m. Tickets are $10. For reservations, call (401) 351-4242.

brourke@projo.com / (401) 277-7267